


Electric Sticks and Mighty Fists

by Selador



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: BAMF!Friendship, Fic Exchange, Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-04
Updated: 2013-10-04
Packaged: 2017-12-28 09:24:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/990395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selador/pseuds/Selador
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snapshots of Reno's and Tifa's friendship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Electric Sticks and Mighty Fists

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoy the fic, nolifeinabox! This is kinda how I would see their friendship, based on what I can remember, which may not be the most accurate.

It started with the small things.

Reno would sip a lone beer at the bar while Tifa worked. Reno’s reason for being there was to both to learn current gossip and opinions on how Rufus was running ShinRa, and to check in on the people involved in the power change. However, when Tifa asked, he had replied instead, “Just wanna watch you work, sweetheart.”

Tifa punched him.

When he came to, he had clearly been left to wake up on his own where he had landed. That was to say, on top of one chair leg and a poster of a moogle draped over his face.

He got up and ordered another beer.

...

Out of the Turks, Reno was the most successful at blending in at various bars and reporting back pertinent gossip and new. So he was rewarded by having to do it all of the time.

About once a week, he would be a regular fixture at Seventh Heaven. Tifa would give him his one beer that he would nurse all night so as to blend in but not actually become drunk, and she would ignore him.

One night, Cloud came in. Tifa brightened, said a cheerful hello and was completely ignored. Cloud disappeared into the back of the building.

Reno couldn’t help but comment. “We can expect some cloudy weather today, but it’ll be fleeting with a harsh cold shoulder going with it.”

“Be quiet,” Tifa muttered.

“Sorry,” Reno held his hands up in the universal ‘please don’t punch me again’ sign. “The guy has issues. I know that.”

“Don’t all of us?” Tifa asked. Minutes passed and drinks were served before Tifa wandered back over to Reno. “He’s never going to be okay.” She said it like she was admitting a secret, but a secret she had said many times over.

And she had, to herself, mouthing the words in the bathroom after any particularly difficult time with Cloud. Or, more realistically, without Cloud. This was the first time she had given the words true substance.

And she had given them to Reno.

But the Turk only shrugged. “No surprise here. I’ve seen men go through less than he did and end up non-functional.”

“Really?” Tifa asked, before she can stop herself.

“Of course,” he replied lazily. He waved the hand not holding his beer. “You think the Turks only job was to keep everyone quiet? Part of it was to _retire_ —” He did air quotation marks, as if it wasn’t clear enough. “—SOLDIERS and other employees who snapped.”

_Too bad you never got to Sephiroth_ , Tifa thought with a hard stare at Reno. Whatever he read in that stare made him flinch, but he bounced back. “Hell, there were some soldiers in the war against Wutai that were never really at home in their own head. You know? They weren’t all there. Or had anger issues.”

Tifa wondered if there was a question there. So she said, “Cloud doesn’t have anger issues.”

Almost imperceptibly, Reno relaxed. “Good,” he said.

...

Some nights later, there was a commotion in Seventh Heaven.

It was an argument between two groups of people who had not entered the bar together. As far as Tifa could determine, one group had been enthusiastically discussing politics and another group seated at the table next to them overheard. And disagreed. Violently.

As always when bar fights broke out, Tifa wasted no time in hauling two of the participants over her head and throwing them out of the bar.

The fighting stopped abruptly.

Tifa glared at the remainders of the two groups and said, “Out.”

They left.

Tifa went back to the bar and conversation slowly started back up again.

Reno gave her a considering look when she returned. She ignored him, until near the end of the night and she finally gave into curiosity.

“What is it?”

“Wanna spar sometime?”

...

Rude entered the door to the ShinRa training room as Tifa threw Reno towards the door. There was a spectacular crash, and over the commotion, Tifa could be heard shouting, “Rude! I’m so sorry, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Rude responded from underneath Reno. He sat up, pulling Reno up with him. Reno seemed a bit disoriented.

“I’m fine, too.” Not disoriented enough to not be sarcastic. He was fine. “Thanks for asking.” Rude pushed him off, probably coming to the same conclusion Tifa had, and stood up. Reno held a hand up, and Tifa pulled him to his feet.

“Why were you beating him up?” Rude asked Tifa.

“Hey,” Reno protested. “She was not beating me up.”

“No, she was only throwing you successfully into a wall.”

“I would have bounced back if you hadn’t been in the way.”

“I can fix that,” answered Tifa. To Rude, “We were sparring.”

Rude’s eyebrows raised, but with his sunglasses, Tifa cannot see his eyes. It was about as much expression as Tifa had ever seen on Rude. “Since when?” Rude asked.

“For a few weeks now,” answered Tifa.

“Huh,” was Rude’s response.

...

After her bar shift, Tifa would pour a drink for herself and sit with Reno before cleaning up. Reno would help.

As they cleaned, Reno mentioned, “I’m being sent on a simple routing mission. There’s a sudden repopulation of some nasty critters by Junon.”

_So you won’t be around for at least a week_ , thought Tifa, pleased that Reno would think to inform her. And then—

“Would you like to come?”

“What?”

“You wanna get a break from this place and go beat up some monsters with me?”

“Oh,” Tifa said. It would be short and Tifa would appreciate getting away. “Sure.”

...

Reno was better was hiding in the background and taking targets out without being seen. Tifa was better at bulldozing straight through her enemies.

This was what they did: Tifa went in, fist swinging. Reno would take out the monsters from behind while Tifa went as a distraction.

They finished in less than a quarter of the time expected.

They returned to Midgar, and Barrett greeted Tifa with, “How was your monster vacation with the assassin?” He looked up at her from behind the bar, and did a double take. “Must have gone well. Ain’t never seen you look so relaxed.”

Tifa smiled. She sat down on a bar stool. “Yeah. It was fun. Therapeutic.”

“Don’t be offended by this or nothing, but...” Barrett searched for his words, leaning on the bar. “You and him involved? Not judging or nothing, but he is a weird choice for you.”

“No, we’re not,” Tifa answered.

Barrett nodded in easy acceptance. It hadn’t occurred to Tifa that Barrett might see her and Reno as together. She wouldn’t want that. She _really_ would not want that.

...

Tseng visited her the next day. He ordered a pint of beer early in the night, before most customers arrived and definitely before Reno arrived.

“I heard you went with Reno on his last mission,” stated Tseng.

“Yes,” answered Tifa.

“And you two worked as an effective team in order to cut the mission time by a fourth.”

“Yes.”

“What good teamwork.”

“I suppose.”

“Would you be interested in going on missions with him again in the future?”

“Of similar missions, yes.”

“Excellent. We’ll inform you when there are missions of those type.”

And that was that.

**Author's Note:**

> It feels a little unfinished to me, but I think that last line worked well... If it continued, I feel like it would have to be a much longer fic than intended.


End file.
